Police arrest Long Beach gang member wanted for killing girlfriend

LONG BEACH — Acting on a tip from the public, police arrested a 24-year-old Long Beach man wanted for the slaying of his girlfriend, who was also the mother of his three children, authorities said Monday.

Marcos Gustavo Zermeno was arrested at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday at a home in the area of Santa Fe Avenue and Oaks Street in Compton, said Sgt. Aaron Eaton, a Long Beach Police Department spokesman.

Police had been searching for the documented gang member since Aug. 4, when Zermeno allegedly gunned down 22-year-old Eleonora Rivera Hidalgo, as the couple argued in front of their families' homes in a North Long Beach mobile home park.

"We were making carne asada just with the family," the victim's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Perez, said the day after the slaying. "We found her in front of (her) mother-in-law's house."

Perez and other family members said the couple had been at the barbecue, which was held after a baptism, but left and were sitting in a car parked in front of one of the mobile homes when a shot rang out.

Relatives from both sides of the family live next door to each other in the small mobile home park, which sits on the west side of Atlantic Avenue, across from Jordan High School and Houghton Park in North Long Beach.

"She was dead when we found her," Perez said in Spanish.

Long Beach Police Department units called to the scene about 10:35 p.m. arrived to find the victim inside a vehicle parked at a residence within the park, said Nancy Pratt, an LBPD spokeswoman.

Hidalgo was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital, she said.

Pratt said witnesses spotted Zermeno running from the vehicle after the shooting. The suspect tried to steal a car before he jumped over a fence and fled the complex, she said.

The victim and the suspect lived together at the location with their three children, who are 7, 6 and 2 years old. All three children are now being cared for by relatives, police and family said.

Though several family members said the pair often argued, they didn't say what triggered the deadly fight. They also said they never thought Zermeno would turn violent.

"We just thought it was another argument between them," Perez said. "I don't know what happened."

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Long Beach Police Homicide detectives Mark McGuire and Greg Krabbe at 562-570-7244.